Software sits at the center of the 2026 deal reshuffle. Most private equity exits in 2025 went to corporate buyers paying premium prices for recurring-revenue, data-rich businesses, with cybersecurity, enterprise software, and payment infrastructure drawing the fiercest bidding.

Jean-Pierre Conte, managing partner of Lupine Crest Capital, positions the firm deliberately below that auction. Trophy software assets command prices a patient buyer has no reason to chase.

Where the Aggressive Money Goes

Corporates have outbid financial sponsors for the marquee software targets. They fold data-rich platforms into their own product lines. Big Tech acquihires add a parallel stream of activity that never appears in the megadeal count yet still drains senior operating talent from the field.

Bidding at that altitude favors buyers with quarterly reporting cycles and synergy math. A family office gains nothing by matching offers built on a corporate acquirer’s cost-cutting assumptions. Stretching to win a trophy asset at a synergy-driven price would only erode the returns patient capital is meant to protect.

The Band Conte Actually Works

Lupine Crest underwrites software in the $50 million to $500 million revenue range, below the level where the largest acquirers compete. Targets in that band often need data infrastructure, security tooling, and workflow automation, and they reward owners willing to fund that build over years.

Corporate buyers struggle to hold such companies through their own reporting pressure. Jean-Pierre Conte can, which turns a longer horizon into a sourcing advantage rather than a liability.

Why the Position Holds Up

A software business acquired in an AI-themed roll-up will frequently shed non-core service lines within 12 to 24 months. Those divestitures fall straight into Lupine Crest’s range and feed deal flow without a bidding war.

Patience converts the megadeal frenzy into a pipeline. Jean-Pierre Conte reads the crowded top of software not as a wall to scale but as a source of the carve-outs his model is built to take down. Each round of corporate consolidation tends to leave behind smaller, viable businesses that need a long-term owner more than a quick flip, and that is the segment Lupine Crest keeps watching.